A Times news article from Boston reports:
Most glaringly, the storms have exposed the vulnerabilities of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, which operates the region's decrepit, fitful subways, buses and commuter rail lines. The underfunded system, which carries 1.3 million people a day and is $5.5 billion in debt, has been plagued in the last 17 days by breakdowns, fires, power losses, delays of two and three hours, and scenes of commuters having to disembark and pick their way along snow-covered tracks.
The Times reporters may be of the view that the MBTA is "underfunded," but your editor, a Massachusetts taxpayer and transit rider, disagrees. Unlike the Times, your editor will provide some evidence to support his opinion. One survey (see table 1-10) of transit spending in the 50 states found the state of Massachusetts spending $180.75 a year per person on transit — more than four times the national average, and more than any other state. The District of Columbia spends more per capita, but it isn't a state. Some might argue that the issue with the MBTA isn't that it is underfunded, but that it has a unionized workforce with better pension and benefit deals than lots of private-sector employees.
The voters of the commonwealth had a chance to voice their opinions on this issue in the recent election, and they rejected a gas tax increase to pay for transportation improvements.
Just because something isn't working well, it doesn't automatically follow that it is "underfunded." That's a left-wing misconception, which one could summarize as, "if something in government is broken, give it more money." It's a shame to see the Times news reporters fall into that trap.
As for the MBTA's $5.5 billion in debt, which the Times interprets as a sign of weakness, one might just as easily see it as a sign of strength — the MBTA's monopoly and pricing power are so deeply entrenched that the capital markets believe the agency has the capacity to repay that debt with interest over time with fare revenue. Apple has $36 billion in debt, according to Yahoo! Finance. Does that mean it is in five or six times as deep a hole as the MBTA? No, it just means that the company has enough revenue-generating power that people are willing to lend it money cheaply, so it takes the money and uses it.